Warning that Sudan was “poised to fall further into chaos if swift action is not taken,”, he also said he would renew sanctions on Sudan this week.

“If the government of Sudan acts to improve the situation on the ground and to advance peace, there will be incentives; if it does not, then there will be increased pressure imposed by the United States and the international community,” Obama said in a statement.

(Reporting by Ross Colvin, editing by Caren Bohan)

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Fighting in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo has forced at least 8,000 people from their homes this year.

Both sides in the conflict have been accused of killing civilians as they battle for control of the area.

Many of the region’s refugees end up crammed into makeshift camps, with no idea when, or even if, they will ever be able to go home.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow reports from Shasha, in the eastern part of the country.

Iran has shut down three daily newspapers critical of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president, according to reports by state-run news agencies.

While no reason was given, the newspapers had been considered sympathetic towards those protesting over Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in June.

The papers closed on Tuesday wereTahlil Rooz (Day’s Analysis) in the southern city of Shiraz, and two of the most influential reformist newspapersFarhang Ashdi (Culture of Reconciliation) and Arman (Ideals) published in the capital, Tehran.

Media crackdown

Some reports suggest the reason for the closure was a law which bans papers from receiving funds from abroad.

The government’s closure of media outlets has become common in the past decade, during which time more than 100 independent and liberal newspapers and magazines have been banned.

A number of media outlets have been closed since Ahmadinejad’s rise to power in 2005.

Several journalists have been detained on allegations of incitement as part of a media crackdown following the unrest that followed this year’s elections.

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Iran has test-fired two long-range missiles which defence analysts say are capable of hitting Israel or US bases in the Gulf region.

The state-sponsored Press TV news channel said that the Shahab 3 and Sejil missiles were fired on Monday, the second day of military exercises by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard forces.

Britain, France and the European Union all expressed their “concern” after the tests, which come just days before Tehran is due to meet the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany, to discuss its nuclear programme.

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Ertugrul Osman – the would-be sultan known in Turkey as the “last Ottoman” – has died in Istanbul at the age of 97.

Osman would have been sultan of the Ottoman Empire had Turkey’s modern republic not been created in the 1920s.

As the last surviving grandson of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, he would have been known as his Imperial Highness Prince Shehzade Ertugrul Osman Effendi.

Born in Istanbul in 1912, Osman spent most of his years living modestly in New York.

No political ambition

He was a 12-year-old student in Vienna when he heard the news that his family was being expelled by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the soldier who founded the modern Turkish republic out of the ashes of the old empire.

Osman eventually settled in New York, where for more than 60 years he lived in a flat above a restaurant.

Always insisting he had no political ambition, he only returned to Turkey in the early 1990s at the invitation of the government.

During the visit, he went to Dolmabahce – the palace by the Bosphorus where he had played as a child.

Characteristically, he joined a tour group in order to avoid any red-carpet treatment.

Ertugrul Osman is survived by his wife, Zeynep, a relative of the last king of Afghanistan.

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Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime minister of Zimbabwe, took a new tough stance against President Robert Mugabe yesterday, warning: “You misjudge me at your peril.” Tsvangirai said he would consult the public on whether the fraught unity government was still tenable.

His hard line came as the first European Union delegation to visit Zimbabwe since 2002 said that targeted sanctions would not be lifted until the political rivals had resolved their differences.

Tsvangirai, addressing a rally to mark the 10th anniversary of his party, the Movement for Democratic Change, insisted that he would no longer tolerate violations of the power sharing agreement by Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party.

“I am not going to stand by while Zanu-PF continue to violate the law, persecute our members of parliament, spread the language of hate, invade our productive farms … ignore our international treaties,” the prime minister told thousands of supporters in Bulawayo. “I am not going to stand by and let this happen.”

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Russian PM Vladimir Putin has given the clearest indication yet that he might run again for the Russian presidency.

Mr Putin did not commit himself, but hinted that he is thinking of coming back in 2012 when President Dmitry Medvedev’s current term expires.

The two leaders would not compete, but Mr Putin said: “We’ll reach an agreement.”

As ever sensitive to how his behaviour might look to critical outsiders, Mr Putin drew an analogy with the UK, defending the notion of one politician handing the baton of leadership on to a close collaborator without wider consultation.

“When my friend Tony Blair retired, Gordon Brown immediately became prime minister,” he said.

“Were the people of Great Britain consulted on this? No, there was a change of leadership in the country and it was the two of them who decided it.”

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Here is the first of three proposals by Dutch designers Tjep. for self-sufficient farms that provide inhabitants with everything they require, including energy, heat, oxygen, food and waste management. Like the other Oogst proposals, Oogst 1 Solo mimics a natural ecosystem, requiring only wind and solar energy to power its self-contained systems. Plants grown in the large greenhouse provide food and convert carbon-dioxide into oxygen, while chickens are kept for eggs and meat. Power comes from a windmill and solar panels. The farm stands clear of the ground on three legs and could be placed anywhere, including at sea.

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